Anchorage Rep. Chuck Kopp, the House majority leader, could have been speaking for the oil companies Saturday when he argued for keeping the Hilcorp loophole intact and rejecting the Senate version of the gas line bill.

The Hilcorp loophole will become the Glenfarne loophole, exempting many companies from paying the graduated income tax that applies to oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

By an 11-9 vote, the Alaska Senate moved to close the Hilcorp loophole as part of a gas pipeline bill on the last day of the legislative special session.

The Senate approved the bill 12-8. The House did not bring it up, however, and the special session ended. The next special session begins Saturday.

Something important happened this week on the gas pipeline.

The “Build the Line!” cheerleaders in Fairbanks and elsewhere parroting Glenfarne propaganda without examining any details didn’t notice.

The sloganeers were so busy getting angry at legislators they didn’t object when Glenfarne asked for a “technical amendment” that would make the Fairbanks spur line more expensive for Alaska customers of the gas pipeline.

The Senate amended the gasline bill Friday to include provisions for a project labor agreement.

The amendment was needed Sen. Bill Wielechowski said, because the labor unions that had negotiated and recently celebrated the signing of a project labor agreement thought that the deal with binding.

But Glenfarne and Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced later that it was not binding, Wielechowski said.

Somebody needs to tell Rep. Mia Costello and Sen. George Rauscher that the gasline is no laughing matter.

I bring this up because it appears Mia and George have been captured laughing, perhaps about the gas pipeline.

The Dunleavy administration and advocates of the proposed Pearl Creek charter school are asking the Alaska Supreme Court for an emergency order and to overturn a Fairbanks Superior Court judge to force the school district to allow the charter school to open in August.

Dunleavy and the Pearl Creek academic policy committee, represented by Fairbanks attorney Mike Kramer, asked for a ruling by 10 a,m. Monday, so jobs could be posted next week.

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Kirk Schwalm rejected efforts by the proposed Pearl Creek charter school for a court order requiring the school district to allow the charter to open in August.

The Pearl Creek group requested a preliminary injunction to have the school open while court proceedings continue regarding the school district challenge to the process used by the Dunleavy administration.

By ALEX CUADROS

As the founder and owner of Hilcorp, a privately held company known for buying up old, low-producing “stripper wells,” Hildebrand needs Trump’s favor. Long one of the oil industry’s top polluters, Hilcorp releases unusually large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that can trap 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide. 

Opening the Pearl Creek charter school would probably lead to the closure of another neighborhood school in the Fairbanks area with Woodriver, University Park and Anne Wien the most likely choices.

That’s one of the key reasons why the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board voted unanimously against the Pearl Creek charter plan.